Moment Musicaux

Here’s to number 10!

Excellent match. Much kudos to Wigan — Steve Bruce shut the mouths of those who said that they’d kelong — they enjoyed more possession than people would have expected them to, albeit poor finishing let them down.

Good job, Bolton, although a win for Chelsea would have been better salt on the wounds. Heh heh.

And now, onward Moscow…

Yeah, so I went (not before developing cold feet the night before) to get my limbs busted. I went for a barbeque the night before (ate lots of lamb chops!). Mom woke me up at 5am, forced me to have a Billy Wang exercise session with her. And now I’ve been forced to get my lazy bum up at 4am from Wednesday to join in that exercise!! ARGH!

So Yiwen picked up Sing Lynn and I by cab. The race started to the blasting of "You’re just too booooo-tiful", totally making my mood feel suicidal (not me, the MOOD). I also couldn’t believe that SO MANY GIRLS (young and working adults) were happily singing along! YARGH!

I told Yiwen to leave me be and not spoil her first marathon at the 3Km mark. Yea, that’s how bad my fitness level is. Even though Doreen said that it’s always better to have a kaki while running, I think the thought of finishing the race was good enough motivation for me. I took advantage of my still-there-recovery abilities to do brisk walks and fast jogs (of course I walked a little more than jogged) while trying to ignore the pain from the balls of my right foot. That hampered my progress, along with my lousy stamina. Yargh!

Still, I was quite morale-ly boosted when I realised that I could actually better my previous timing. I pushed all the way for the final few hundered metres. And I did! By a few minutes hahah. Last year I did wast almost 10 mins searching for a plaster for my blistered toe. Mehh. Found the others who did 21Km, and bumped into a couple of church friends and old colleagues =) We’re thinking of printing some TeamGlory tees for future races! WOO!

21Km next year? Hahah I don’t know. Depending on my training consistency: maybe. Just maybe. 

NB: I thought this year’s race was very well-organised. Especially the bag collection — there was hardly a queue, unlike last year where we waited almost an hour just to get our belongings. And yeah, it was like a warzone in the collection area!

Team GLORY!

Laziness, you are the bane of my life. I’ve conveniently forgotten about my every-morning-do-30-crunches regimen after 3 weeks of doing it regularly. Look, I’m not conscious about the weight. I’m conscious about the waist. It’s my fault that I wear fitting clothes — clothes that fit like what, 3 years ago? Not that it doesn’t fit at all already, but feeling unfit (punpunpun) really is crappy. And flabby.

Psst, Glory Tennis Club chairman aka Christina, please organise tennis this week!

In other sports-related news, StanChart Marathon is here once again. CH, my ex-colleague, has challenged me to obtain a better timing than she did (she’s twice my age and has bad knees) this time. Yeah, yeah. Sigh. Must… Train…!

Finally, does anyone know of any sandals that are nice and have good cushioning for feet with high arcs? Birkenstocks, when their soles start to wear off, are really quite detrimental to my ankle. No, I don’t like to wear shoes on a regular basis. Sandals recommendations prease…

Carrick, stab.
Smith, stab stab.
Rooney, stab stab stab.
Ronaldo, stab stab stab stab + stab.
Carrick, stab x 6
Evra, stab stab stabby stab stab stab STAB!

Manchester United 7 - Roma 1.

Unbelievable. I MUST catch the replay on TV.

Glory, glory Man United!

Osim’s Singapore Triathlon is coming again in July. Wow, it’s been almost a year since I took part with the ex-colleagues (15th in category, recap)! Like I’d said, I would want to do a Sprint or Mini this year. But well, since I’ve no bike to train - yet, I guess I’d start with biathlons first. Singapore Biathlon 2008 next March! Must train train train! Choo choo!

Edit: Knee has not been in good shape though.

P.S. Did you know that detergent powder turns warm when it comes into contact with water? I just found out on my own! 

To…

…EXERCISE.

Wakeboarding/tennis/swimming/running/basketball/soccer/cycling/ANYTHING (apart from the humidity) that can make me perspire…PLEASE!

Meeting the ECD next week. My job is in God’s hands.

Chinese New Year (read: 8-course meal dinners 4 days in a row, pineapple tarts, BAH KUAs etc. etc. etc.) hasn’t helped my already-expanding girth which has been on a roll on top of the lack of exercise due to projects. The last time I tried running with my sister, one round of my 19-block estate already felt a little harsh on my stamina-deficient lungs. That was even before all the pigging out (pardon the pun) began. No thanks to my hearty metabolism rate, my arms are also saying ‘hello’ to it’s bye-bye muscles (wave goodbye and look at your biceps to see what I mean) once again. Not a good sign at all.

I’m generally nonchalant about my looks BUT feeling overtly un-fit (and betraying too much of that) irks me. I want my pre-school (pre-poly, not kindergarten but that’ll be nice) fitness back!!!

This week will be a good one to start though. Dragon boat-ed a la Pirates of the Carribean yesterday (think rowing in choppy waters and rain), a good game of tennis today, swimming and running on Tuesday, cycling with the boyfriend on Thursday. And jamming. My muscles are feeeelin’ it. Yahoo!

And it’s the end of February already! This is scarily fast. I’m really looking forward to March though. Can’t wait to catch Jaga Jazzist and Chick Corea at the Mosaic Music Festival.

Much to do, march to do. Bwahaha.

Yesterday marked my very first Standard Chartered Marathon.

Though it was only 10km, I guess I did quite alright — considering the fact that I haven’t been exercising regularly nor trained up for the run, and that I’ve never ran more than 4km in any one sitting. I mean, running.

(And by now it’s a known fact that I hate running long distances. Okay, not so much anymore.)

At 7.45am, we started off from the Esplanade bridge. A record 30,000 (10km) people were running! we ran down Raffles Quay and toward Marina Park. The first 3km was pretty managable, and I maintained a good pace alongside Rose and Jean.

The Marina Park area was slightly demoralising — the path was split into 2 directional lanes — imagine having people run against you when you’re still running in search for the roundabout and you can’t see what’s ahead! At 5km, Rose went ahead when I started brisk-walking with Jean. Thigh muscles were slightly edgy then.

So I walked for 5 minutes, saw everyone around me determined to run, and decided to abandon Jean, heh.

An annoying abrasion between my left big toe and index toe was threatening to form a blister, so I decided to jog up to any individual carrying a pouch and asked for a plaster. When the plaster arrived, I went on my way for the final 4km.

My running shoes weren’t exactly the best for running (I have rather high-arched feet), and by 6km, my feet were threatening to break down. I decided to run and brisk-walk intermittenly (no music, forgot to bring my Nano’s armband), and kept encouraging myself mentally.

1:35:00 (approx.) at the Padang, mission accomplished! That’s the timing I saw on the clock for the women’s race (they started 15 minutes before us). Hopefully the official timing is somewhat there.

I also ran (pardon the pun) into quite a few people from DDB, my primary and secondary schools. It’s interesting to see how fit a lot of my ex-schoolmates have become after joining a sports CCA in JC.

Here’s Rose and I… 

Me (I love the colour of the tee!). 

Nicholas (who completed the half-marathon, 21.1km: On 2 hours of sleep, an oily dinner, no breakfast, and NO training whatsoever in a monstrous 2hrs and 20minutes).

After the race we rushed down to church to catch the sermon, then it was my sister’s very first public performance with Yuhua Band at the band’s Passing Out Parade. She’s at a much higher standard than I when I first started out. She definitely can surpass me soon! Work hard, little one!

Today was nice.

Sir Silver and the RSAF team treated me to lunch at Pete’s Place, an Italian restaurant in Hyatt. Food was good, company even better. All good things do have to come to an end, like the end of my gobsmacking spaghetti when I took a dump an hour later.
 
It also marked the last of soccer I’ll be playing with my ex-colleagues-to-be. For now. It was kinda bittersweet, with me scoring my first goal — yes, after 9 months. Significant, huh. I couldn’t help but wonder if that’d be the last time I play soccer with them as a DDB-er.

Well, it was great fun even though the air was at PSI 83. I almost cost a senior his um, descendents, despite his wife currently pregnant. Haw haw. Damn paiseh. My knee still feels rather shocked. Haw haw.

16 of the promised 20 turned up for my ‘testimonial’ match. Great turnout still. Here are the 11 who made it for the shoot. Haw haw.

Left to Right: CK the Head of Visualisers, Ben the Senior Art Director (SAD haha) victim, Alan the Group Account Director, River the visualiser, Leoric the IT support man, Mr Nanyang the production hand (if you remember a certain old post), TT the Creative Director, Melvin the Finance Director, Jimmy the Associate Account Director, DQ the Regional Finance Director, Justin the Head of Traffic.

Thanks guys. I’ll miss you all. (:

P.S. They made me pose lah. 

At least it’s known, that though the iceberg is melting, the flood that it causes will not show pity.

So let it flood. We’re ready. It’ll be like Gold Coast’s waves. Icy cold, but not chilling to the bones. Only pure relief when its over. And a little shudder.

Anyway, this is my favourite headline of the week. From Soccernet,

Police examine Barton’s backside
The Football Association were this morning awaiting referee Andrew Marriner’s report into Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton’s shorts-dropping antics.

Perhaps ‘Police examine Barton’s buttocks’ would have been funnier. Or punnier.

Uh, whatever. 

Competitive sports seems to be largely missing in my life, much as I’ve been at sports for years. It’s always been for leisure’s sake, and the highest level I’ve played competitively was primary school zonal. Ha.

To an extent, I’ve never really pushed myself in the mental discipline required of any sport. Which, perhaps, is why I have such a short attention span.

But heck, I love playing sports, whether competitive or not. Even sports that don’t really create perspiration, like billiards. Billiards is the mental game.

I finally touched the snooker table after a spell of more than a year. I managed to hit an average of 40, I think. Didn’t really calculate my score though.

We cleared 2 games in around 30 minutes, which is a great improvement from our 3 games in one-and-a-half hours many moons ago. Pity that my opponent was too tired — maybe we could have cleared the table even faster.

At least I felt the improvement in my stroking and shot accuracy, many thanks to uncle Jamie who helped me change my game.

When I first started out, my playing posture emulated Jimmy White’s because of influence. But after realising that my stroking has always been inconsistent because of a certain erm, hindrance… I switched my resting leg over to the left.

Voila, big difference. 

Funny how things have really changed. Well, change is good I guess.

Anyway, a colleague has invited me to go over to this in-condo pub that he owns (near my area!) to play pool for his club. Apparently they take part in the New Paper’s After 5 competitions. It’s high time I get down to more mental discipline training!

So it seems like I’ll have to buy a snooker cue. It’s more worth than getting a pool cue; it can be used for both games.

But for now, I’m in dire need of funds.

I seem be raking up countless debts now.

Where’s my pay!!!

Funny how a hundred and one questions can get stuck in the throat (or fingers, rather) once they’re being opened to.

I can do tennis already!! And my stroke’s getting better!!!
Fine, I’ll try to sleep.

Go away.. Please?

This is, perhaps, my most dangerous and major injury to myself. And thank God it wasn’t so major.

I wouldn’t have complained this much if I dislocated my shoulder playing tennis. But not with badminton. Rawr. At least the arm popped back into its socket when I jerked back in shock. Funnily enough, I was grinning more than my colleagues around me.

The agony became more emotional than physical when I realised that I had to be in tip-top condition to play drums for not one, but three services. And yesterday was one of the only times that I appreciated having an electronic and small drumset which didn’t need me to move around so much. Thank God that I pulled through despite a bit of a scare in the morning. 

It also meant no tennis, sigh.

Perhaps last week’s random disorder-of-the-week was a telling sign. I kept practising writing with my left hand and doing things with it. Rather fun too, I must say.

I have many things I really need to thank God for.

Thank You, Father — for protecting me throughout my internship. For showing me the path I will be walking down. For letting me be taken care of by the most wonderful and real people in the company. For giving me the best mentors ever. For giving me good health, for granting me intelligence, for guiding me through work, play and church, for being there for me, and for so many other things that You’ve blessed me with. Take care of those who’ve blessed me; take care of those around me. Thank You.

There are no words good enough to thank You
There are no words to express my praise
But I will lift up my voice and sing to the Lord
With all of my strength… Hallelujah!

Team Neuf is unfortunately, not 9th. We’re 15 out of 37 teams! 

We were less than 10 minutes away from being in the Top 10!!! DARNIT. It’s very satisfying anyway, being my first experience in a external sporting event after what, 6 years? Am quite happy with my 40:40 + leg cramp timing, but woah, I spotted a primary school friend (I remember her as a flat-footed swimmer who went off to GEP in Primary 3) at the swim, and her name is somewhere below… Her team was disqualified because of the runner but heck, her swim time is FREAKY. 26:24, can you beat that!!!! She PWNS guys lah!

I’m watching the Ecuador/Germany match. Thank SCV’s four free-to-air matches. Ecuador’s really a shadow of what they have been playing. Either the World Cup is getting slightly boring, or I’m expecting too much from it.

But goodness, betting surely takes the fun out of soccer for betters. Don’t you think?

All right, make that hardcore betters. And how much you value your dollar, put into something that can’t ascertain returns. Hey wait — then why put it in in the first place? Hmm. I can’t explain that myself. D’oh.

In hope of the team you bet on winning, though not necessarily the team you’d be supporting, you experience a myriad of emotions — exhilaration, disappointment, hope, frustration, and satisfaction. All in 90 +/- minutes.

A tip to men: perhaps that’s the closest feeling you can get to PMS in a woman.

Funny how TAF Club stands for ‘Trim And Fit’, yet the students who are in it don’t reflect the club’s name. And you won’t ever get them phrasing the club name as ‘Fit And Trim’, because that would mean a big hullabaloo.

Anyway.

Tennis today was fantastic after a two month drought, but my knees and wrist kind of feel the shock now. It’s trembling slightly as I type. Grr. But my weight has gone DOWN and my faux three-months belly is unofficially relegated to one-month status! Yahoooo! All the long-distance chiong sua swimming must’ve worked it down man. But my metabolism rate has gone up a notch, and I find myself already perspiring after just a three minute walk from my place to church!

But really, so much for all the exercise. I’ve been eating like a cow (no thanks to the metabolic rate and the re-opening of Tiong Bahru market) and let me add, rather unhealthily.

It’s only 2 weeks left to the triathlon. 1.5 Km in 50 minutes is pretty much comfortable for me; I’m still wondering the most important aspect of the race — how to start off. Rawr. HOW?

Oh yes, I’m stuck in good ol’ Singapore, doing my interns-are-not-entitled-to-take-leave internship and farting away (7 times in the last half-hour) while the rest of the youths are in M’sia for the church camp and the brother has absconded to Clementi McDs’ to catch England vs T&T.

By the way, did I mention that Ecuador beat Costa Rica 3-0? They (Costa Rica, not Ecuador) are the team which allowed the biggest number of goals so far, but I’m not complaining

Ecuador is going to do a Greece in Euro 2004, mark my words. You’ve been warned.

I hope Eriksson leaves Rooney on the bench to keep him for the Sweden game, though. Unless he wants to give his roots lesser a chance of getting uprooted, which means Rooney plays in the T&T match and gets his legs blown up (choy), then he rests against the Swedes.

Well, like I informed earlier, my GAStrics aren’t at their optimum and neither is my alertness, so I shall save the soccer for tomorrow’s screening at the auditorium again. Whoopee.

Last weekend was a nice, hectic weekend. The company was showing the Friday opening match on the Huge Screen and had clients over and a great catered dinner + bar, but I felt that my mama wouldn’t be too happy if I were to stay out late all the time for soccer. So I gave up the Germany/Costa Rica match for the England (yawn) Paraguay match. It was really boring. The only entertainment I had came from the youths who were watching with me at Mel’s and the match commentator. Nice, dry humour.

Oh yeah, and Peter Crouch, too. I can’t stand his face, his height, his ball control, his awkwardness, His Clumsiness… Hahahaha. But seriously, this year’s World Cup has a bad problem. Hyped players, yet no gel. Injuries, fat players, fat coaches… Sigh. Like what my colleague says, maybe I should just wait for the teams to settle down before sparing any sleep for the matches.

Saturday was more soccer, with the youths taking part in a muddy inter-church soccer/captain’s ball tournament. It’s supposed to be Under 18, but some blatant army singletees and bulky older-looking guys meant that our youths were probably the youngest bunch there. Had I known, I’d have played instead of refreeing! But still, the boys were terrific. With an average age of 15 1/2, they managed to beat those who were older than them with a clean sheet (6-0, 6-0) till the semis! My toenails still have memories of running around barefoot in the field.

Here’s a belated Happy 16th to Priscilla! (:

Was at Plaza Singapura’s Yamaha getting her a drum practice pad, when I realised that they stocked pro-mark sticks. Better still, Carter Beauford’s signature series!! They felt damn good to the grip, and I honestly had a Harry Potter moment there. I had to buy them.
 

The sticks are 5AB, but only slightly heavier than the 7A that I’ve always been using. But I’ve been searching for a heavier pair because light ones are getting a tad hard for heavier playing and control. And voila, my drumming idol’s sticks! Jamming with the new sticks felt good! Need to watch my tempo though. Lots to improve still. The band’s name is changed to ‘You and Whose Army?’, after a Radiohead song.

Okay I’ll end here. Shall blog more another day, I’m too sleepy right now.